Watsky

Released: January 1, 2011

Songwriter: Mark Foster Watsky

[Verse 1]
I've been on the blacktop
Steady throwing elbows
Ever since I was was in corduroys and velcros
Ever since you did your impression of Melrose
Pace
A giggling gaggle of Tickle me Elmos
I ate some wheaties and graduated to shell toes
Running from a bully, man I'm thinking hell no
Chain me to a tree, I'm waiting for the bulldozer
You only woulda seen skate away if hell froze
May not be bigger but you're never gonna pick on me
You're Cedric Diggory. I'm Nicholas Nickleby
You better pick a team
There's no in between
You want a nickelbag
You want some nicotine
You wanted a fix
I will never be your goldmine
Taking my kicks
And I'm hanging em over the phoneline
So you can find me, posted feeling so fine

[Verse 2]
At Buena Vista elementary in second grade
One whistle is when recess ends
Two whistles is an earthquake drill
Three means every kid better hit the deck
Unless you want to catch a stray bullet or a ricochet from a fight across the chainlink fence
I know that I don't look it but grew up in the middle of the city where only the quick make friends
A kid in Frisco
Navigating Lombard
No On Star
I'm on BART
No lawn darts
Not saying I'm hard
But I got street val for my pokemon cards
Better put me onto Pawn stars
And I'll Barter like my gramma when she wants art
Every block or two I skate around another beggar
Leaning on a cop car
Baked as a pop tart

A successful slam poet turned rapper, Watsky first gained attention through ‘Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry,’ and a later burst of viral success for his fast rapping. At every turn, Watsky has refused to be pigeonholed, following up his speed rap success with 2013 LP Cardboard Castles, an eccentric ode to creativity, and 2014’s Anderson. Paak-produced All You Can Do. After a hiatus to work on new material, Watsky pivots again, this time to prose, returning simultaneously with the essay collection How To Ruin Everything, published by Plume/Penguin-Random House, of which Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda writes, “funny, subversive […] you find yourself nodding your head in wonder and recognition.” How To Ruin Everything debuted in the New York Times best-selling list. In total, he has created five studio albums and two live albums. Watsky released his fifth album, x INFINITY August 2016, describing it as his most ambitious project yet. Most recently, in January of 2019, he released a short album called Complaint.

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